Judge Rejects Trial Request From Feathers In Drug Case

June 5, 1985|By Al Truesdell of The Sentinel Staff

DAYTONA BEACH — A man whose cocaine trafficking case led to the conviction of a former Daytona Beach lawyer was denied a new trial Tuesday.

Circuit Judge James Foxman rejected a motion by Ralph Dieter Feathers to overturn the Ormond Beach man's 1981 no contest plea and 15-year prison sentence. Feathers claimed he is entitled to relief because he was the victim of ineffective legal counseling.

Feathers said he erased parts of tapes of incriminating conversations between himself and law enforcement officers and lied to prosecutors on the advice of his attorney at the time, Gary Smigiel, 40.

He claimed Smigiel didn't want the case to go to trial because evidence of his role might have surfaced.

Feathers' testimony was instrumental in the conviction of Smigiel on an evidence tampering charge. Smigiel was paroled last November after serving nine months of a three-year sentence. He was suspended from practicing law in April 1982 and is facing disbarment by the Florida Supreme Court.

In a written order, Foxman said Feathers is not entitled to a new trial because he voluntarily participated in the illegal acts, willfully erasing the tapes and lying to prosecutors.

Foxman conceded the suggestion to erase the tapes was not competent advice. ''Yet this court finds the defendant cannot be allowed to complain about wrongdoings that he voluntarily participated in,'' the judge added.

Feathers' sentence was upheld by the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach in 1982.

Smigiel also had been involved in a federal investigation involving officials from the state attorney's office and sheriff's department in Indian River County. Defense attorneys also were involved in the probe into fixing cases through plea bargain arrangements. Smigiel worked in Indian River County as a law clerk after he was suspended from practicing law.